‘Bad Monkey’ and ‘Nature Girl’ by Carl Hiaasen

If you are a fan of crime novels but are maybe stuck in a rut, then welcome to the wonderful world of Carl Hiaasen! Novels are set in Florida, and usually have a series of unbelievable characters thrown into unbelievable situations.

When a severed arm is discovered by a couple on honeymoon in the Florida Keys, former police detective – now reluctant restaurant inspector – Andrew Yancy senses that something doesn’t add up. Determined to get his badge back, he undertakes an unofficial investigation of his own. Andrew’s search for the truth takes him to the Bahamas, where a local man, with the help of a very bad monkey (who allegedly worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) is doing everything in his power to prevent a developer from building a new tourist resort on the island, with deadly consequences.

I loved the wonderful descriptions of Yancy’s restaurant visits, the monkey mayhem, and the ridiculous lengths people will go to to avoid hooking up a limb when they are fishing!

Honey Santana -self-proclaimed queen of lost causes – has a Plan. She’s working on a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference and dinner-time telemarketers.

She’s also taking part-time telephonist Boyd Shreve and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress to Dismal Key – one of the Everglades’ Ten Thousand Islands – for a gentle lesson in civility.

What Honey doesn’t know is that lurking in the island’s undergrowth is Sammy Tigertail, half-blood Seminole Indian and wholly failed alligator wrestler, with death on his mind; and Honey’s deranged co-worker, Louis Piejack, now with most of his fingers surgically mis-attached to the wrong knuckles, and intent on revenge. A holiday to die for? In Hiaasen’s extraordinary universe, anything can happen …

Yes, you guessed it – ridiculous in the extreme but if you just go with the flow, you’ll enjoy!